When You Believe: Change, Equality, and Advancement are accomplished!

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Get exclusive information and news about When You Believe Foundation, Inc. in this section. This portion of the website is to enlighten, enrich and inform everyone about the endeavors and activities of When You Believe Foundation, Inc. Feedbacks and suggestions are welcome.

This year's theme is "Celebrating Women of Character, Courage, and Commitment."

When You Believe Foundation, Inc. Founder/CEO Ruby B. Johnson speaking about the importance of women's empowerment and the work of When You Believe Foundation, Inc. to Virginia Tech's women at the "BSA Presents: Women's Month Kick-Off" 2014 event.

Hope you and yours are doing well. Over the past month, When You Believe Foundation, Inc. has advocated for several mission-oriented initiatives via Facebook, Twitter, and Blog.

I will like to congratulate Vanessa Williams on her graduation from Virginia Tech. Vanessa is the awesome Media Coordinator of WYBF. She's hardworking, intelligent, and an overall beautiful person. Congratulations to the Class of 2012 graduates, I wish you all the best in your future endeavors.

Body Confident, Beautiful Me: A Love Your Body Campaign is still active on the blog. BCBM Tour continues, so tell us if you will like team WYBF to speak with your group in the near future. Remember to take our survey about body image and beauty ideals. Become a fan of BCBM on facebook and LIKE the page.

Stay tuned for our next issue of BELIEVHER as we highlight the adventures of When You Believe Foundation, share a personal story about body image, reflections from me, and many more!

As always, I wish you peace, courage, and many blessings. Never hesitate to contact me if you need assistance or have further questions, my e-mail is RubyBJohnson@gmail.com

As the year (2011) comes to a close, we here at When You Believe Foundation, Inc. will like to reflect on our goals initially set and evaluate where we are and plan to go. Listed below are the goals of this organization:

This is Ruby, and I hope you all are doing well. To be honest with you all, I can barely contain myself right now writing this post because today marks the first anniversary of When You Believe Foundation, Inc. (Est. Nov. 22, 2010). I find it a bit difficult to believe that it has already been a year, but I am so grateful to the Almighty for this entire year. With the help of God, Team WYBF, volunteers, my family, and friends, I can truly say that this is my testimony that dreams really do come true, and anything is possible when you believe.

I am so happy with the level of outreach that When You Believe Foundation, Inc. has reached over the past year, and would not ask for anything more or less. Our mission is to serve the community (emphasis on girls and women) in any way possible with intent of empowerment, providing assistance, promoting self-sufficiency, and this year we have rightfully done that. Thanksgiving is two days away, and I will proudly tell you that I am grateful for this organization, its members (the oh so hardworking and amazing Team WYBF), supporters, partnered organizations, and everyone that has contributed to the mission of this organization.

Over the past year in our events and activities, we have taken notes on what worked superb, poorly, and also may need improvement. We are cognizant that the world, especially the status of girls and women, cannot be changed in a twinkle of an eye, but we know that as we continue to work towards it and impacting one community at a time, that positive change is definitely underway. My passion for issues related to girls and women continues to burn and I will never let anyone or anything blow out that fire, by God's grace.

I will like to give a special thanks to the WYBF Advisory and Executive Board members, and volunteers. These phenomenal people are truly living by the mission of this organization, and I am very grateful for them. I am very proud of events such as Knowledge Is Her Power, Healthy Lifestyle For Her, etc. and also with Campaigns such as Body Confident, Beautiful Me: A Love Your Body Campaign. We got/getting great feedbacks, and that lets us know that we are making our mark in society and living by the mission. With the help of God, perseverance, and courage, I know that the best is yet to come for WYBF and I am very excited to see what the future holds for us.

I want to thank the Almighty for giving me the courage to continue persevering and never giving up on my dreams and the mission of When You Believe Foundation, Inc. Without the Lord's help and inclusion, I know this would have never been possible. As the motto of the WYBF goes, when you believe: change, equality, advancement are accomplished. Therefore, I highly emphasize that you all must start and/or continue pursuing your dreams and goals and never give up. We were all born with greatness and destiny to be power forces in life, do not let that die because you are more than a conqueror. Know that one is never too young or old to make a positive change in their life and/or community, all you need is courage and be active; don't just talk about it, be about it and take action. Also, when you dream, you better dream big because the sky is your limit.

As always, please take great care of yourselves. Continue making your dreams a reality, be empowered and see the beauty in yourself. Do not let the words of others affect you and be mindful with words you express to others. You are beautiful, strong, and remain empowered. Never hesitate to contact me if needed, and my personal e-mail is rubybjohnson@gmail.com. Remain blessed, and I wish you all peace, courage, and many blessings. Once again, thanks to you all and I truly appreciate each and every one of you from the bottom of my heart. Cheers to When You Believe Foundation, Inc. and our mission for the betterment of girls and women's status in all communities.

This is Ruby, and I hope you all are doing well. In this entry I plan to talk about an event I attended this evening hosted by STAND, the student-led division of the Genocide Intervention Network (Virginia Tech Chapter) featuring Jimmie Briggs. Jimmie Briggs is the Founder of the Man Up Campaign, this global initiative works with youth in activing working towards the prevention and end to violence against girls and women. Jimmie has traveled to many countries and visited many communities over the past years as a journalist and now activist; his been to countries such as Democratic Republic of Congo (formerly Zaire), Uganda, Rwanda, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, Columbia, Guatemala, Haiti, Darfu, etc.

In his presentation, Jimmie mentioned that he started off as a journalist working for many magazines and media publications. At the beginning of his presentation, he showed a video of images from his 15 years of journalism which he referred to as his "visual journey as a journalist;" in these images, he looked into how war affects childhood and children in conflict/war zones. The slides included images of child soldiers, women being tortured, snapshots of rap videos, young boys playing with toy guns and other armunitions, etc. He mentioned that the reason why images of children playing with toy guns was included is to show how in certain communities there are many fantasies about war with the presence of video games, literature, etc.; however, war and conflict is a reality for other communities in which children and youth are forced into.

In order to explain his reason for starting his organization, he spoke of his life experiences and how many of his journeys led him towards his present path. He mentioned that after a while of being a journalist and traveling to war-torn countries/communities, he came to realize that the stories that were predominantly covered were the men combatting in war fields but there were minor discussions about the girls and women; he said that "women and girls were oppressed in many ways," a realization he came to make while in Rwanda. From then on, he decided to start focusing on sexual violence and conflict. He discussed how women were gang raped in the DRC, and this something that occured multiple times to a woman in just one day. He shared a story about a Congolese woman he met that shared her story of being gang raped in front of her father, husband, and children; her children were later killed right in front of her. He mentioned that while listening to her story, he felt uncomfortable as a man upon hearing what she went through with the men (rapists). Upon feeling that way, he wanted to leave but she requested he stayed so she can tell her full story. He said that she wanted him to stay because she wanted her story to be told in the United States, she wanted Jimmie to represent her and felt that her story being heard can be able to prevent other women from going through the same.

With all the experiences, he then decided to start an initiative. He got the idea of starting "a youth-led organization using Hip Hop, Sports, and Technology comprised of men and women" from his observation of the positive views of these three sectors in the countries he's visited. He contacted some people about it, and he said that Gloria Steinem (active feminist, journalist, and women's rights activist) was one of the people who first gave positive feedback on his idea; she was in full support of the initiative and said that "we need men in the struggle." Some other reasons why he decided to start the Man Up Campaign were to send a message to boys and men that violence against women is not a woman's issue but a human right issue, men need to start doing something and not find it okay to objectify women. He said that there were many men that consider themselves good guys because they do not abuse women, but that is not enough, they must take a stand and speak out about the issue as a whole even when they are not the abusers. He firmly stated that "manhood is doing something and taking action, and that we all have inherent power to change." The empowerment of girls and women is something he spoke of importance, but that men need to be empowered as well to be better individuals and train them to be fathers. He stressed on how girls and women need to be independent and not succumb to society's demands.

Overall, it was a great presentation and I am very happy to have attended. By God's grace, I hope there'll be a When You Believe Foundation, Inc. and Man Up Campaign collaboration in the near future. As always, please take great care of yourselves. Continue making your dreams a reality, be empowered and see the beauty in yourself. Do not let the words of others affect you and be mindful with words you express to others. You are beautiful, strong, and remain empowered. Never hesitate to contact me if needed, and my personal e-mail is rubybjohnson@gmail.com. Remain blessed, and I wish you all peace, courage, and many blessings.

Love Your Body Day is October 19, 2011. On September 25, 1998, National Organization for Women (NOW) Foundation celebrated the First Annual Love Your Body Day. Love Your Body Day is "a day of action to speak out against ads and images of women that are offensive, dangerous and disrespectful."

When You Believe Foundation, Inc. is actively raising awareness towards and after this day about beauty ideals, body images, self-esteem, etc. WYBF is currently conducting a survey in order to help us get better assessment of personal and public opinions.

GIRLS and WOMEN, tell us in the COMMENT section below on this event page about what you LOVE about YOUR BODY, and CELEBRATE your girlhood/womanhood.